It is a well known fact that a high percentage of identity thefts are done by family, friends (I use this word loosely) and acquaintances. We’ve all heard the cases where someone who the victim knows gets a hold of their personal information somehow and wreaks havoc with their credit. This can be done several ways including getting a hold of credit card offers (or other personal mail), snooping in purses or wallets, and even snooping on the victim’s computer.

A lot of those incidents can be avoided simply by taking care of your personal items. Computers are no exception.

OK, so you’ve taken precautions, to the best of your ability, to keep snooping people off your home computer but for some reason you believe someone’s been on there anyhow. Did you know there are ways to tell if someone’s been on there and, to an extent, what they’ve been up to? Your job of snooping on this snoop can be either difficult or easy, depending on how well they cover their tracks. Let’s go through some methods of snooping on a snoop.

Check Recent Items Opened

Depending on your Windows version, you have a menu item named something similar to “Recent Items.” This is a quick and easy way to tell what files have been opened recently. Be aware that if the snoop has his head on straight, he could clear this. However, if it’s cleared, you know someone has been on there, too.

Check Recently Modified Files

You can search for recently modified files in the advanced search window. Just set the location to search (all hard drives might be a good start) and the date you want to search back to.

Make sure you set it to search for “Date modified.”

Check Which Programs Have Been Opened Recently

Some Windows versions give you a list of recently used programs as soon as you click on the Start button (meant to make them more accessible).

You can also use the Event Viewer for some recent activity, including programs opened and the last time the computer was booted up. Go to the start menu and click “Run” and type “eventvwr.msc” and click “OK.”

Check Internet Browsing Histories

What browsers do you have on your computer? Check them all for Internet activity to see if someone’s been going online with it. In Firefox, there is a History menu item.

In Google Chrome you click on the picture of the wrench at the top-right corner of the screen and click History in the dropdown menu.

In Internet Explorer, click the yellow star and choose the History tab.

Many snoops are smart enough to clear the browsing history. Nowadays on some browsers they can choose which history to delete or go completely incognito and browse privately altogether. It is for these reasons that this method will work only for the careless snoop.

So if you are suspecting that a visitor (or even a current resident) of your home is snooping and you are fearing something bad (like your ID being stolen) is going to happen, now you have 5 routes to take to make sure nothing wrong is going on. This way you can curtail it before the bad stuff happens.

Do you have any more tips to help sniff out a snoop? Share in the comments.

You can check recently opened files and applications via the Apple menu (top-left) -> Recent Items.

For the most recently modified files, both Finder and Spotlight aren't too reliable ; not even all folders are indexed. Instead, run the Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) with the following command: "find ~ -type f -ctime -1 | more".

This will look for all files recently adjusted in the specified directory in the terminal - by default, probably, your home folder. For example, "find ~/Documents -type f -ctime -0 | more" will then be limited to your Documents folder. Adjust "ctime -1" to specify the number of 24-hour cycles that need to be included.

You can check recently opened files and applications via the Apple menu (top-left) -> Recent Items.

For the most recently modified files, both Finder and Spotlight aren't too reliable ; not even all folders are indexed. Instead, run the Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) with the following command: "find ~ -type f -ctime -1 | more".

This will look for all files recently adjusted in the specified directory in the terminal - by default, probably, your home folder. For example, "find ~/Documents -type f -ctime -0 | more" will then be limited to your Documents folder. Adjust "ctime -1" to specify the number of 24-hour cycles that need to be included.

I'm surprised that file encryption programs like True Crypt and password managers like Keepass weren't mentioned here. Encrypting sensitive files and managing strong passwords in a secure password vault way would go a long way towards preventing this type of identity theft.

I'm still surprised at how many people leave their computer logged on and auto-fill their passwords. usually all it takes to "hack" someone's email, facebook, etc. is to walk up to their computer and log in. that's why everyone should have their computer set to automatically lock after a few minutes of inactivity and if you're more paranoid tell your browser to prompt you for a password before it auto-fills.

I am a 30 something year old kid at heart. I have been working on and at computers ever since high school. I enjoy finding new and interesting sites that are useful to the every day person. I have been helping and training people on tech-related issues for years and…